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Review: Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-Hsi

User Review - Durell Smith - Goodreads

Very interesting to get into the mind of a man who lived centuries ago, yet held many of the same concerns and skepticisms of the world that we do today. I related heavily his skepticism and empirical ...Read full review

Review: Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-Hsi

User Review - William1 - Goodreads

An fascinating window on Imperial Qing China in the words of Emperor K'ang-Hsi (reigned 1661-1722). I've never read anything like it. To think that author Spence created this "memoir" by assembling ...Read full review

About the author (1974)

Jonathan D. Spence was born in England and received his B.A. from Cambridge University. In 1966 he received his Ph.D. from Yale University and has been a professor of Chinese history there since that time. Spence has won a variety of major fellowships and has served as visiting professor at Belfast's Queens University, Princeton University, and Beijing University. He employs a distinctive writing and historical style, weaving together various kinds of materials to fashion new forms of historical narrative. The best examples of his unique style are The Death of Woman Wang (1979) and The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. In his works, Spence provides a uniquely accessible vision of late imperial China. His writings have won numerous awards and prizes. The Gate of Heavenly Peace (1982) won two awards---the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Henry D. Vursell Memorial Award of the American Academy-Institute of Arts and Letters.